Last week, I wrote about how our water wars are getting personal, how a confrontation in Stuart and vitriolic social media posts led Marsha Powers (a Martin County School Board member and wife of Kevin Powers, vice chair of the South Florida Water Management District's Governing Board) to lash out at heckling and "bullying" by members of the enviro-activist group Bullsugar.

Powers' email, circulated widely, originally had been sent to Bullsugar co-founder Kenan Siegel. On Monday, Siegel responded with an email to Powers that also was shared far and wide.

"We definitely don't condone personal attacks on anyone, and those posts were taken down as soon as we found out about them," Siegel wrote.

But, he said, Bullsugar draws the same vitriol.

"And while you know who heckled you on the street, the attacks on us are coming anonymously from fake newspapers, websites of questionable origin and PACs," he wrote.

Siegel wrote that Bullsugar doesn't need to stoop to that level. Instead, it will focus on spreading the message about its "Now or Neverglades Declaration," which seeks to drum up support for buying land south of Lake Okeechobee, and distributing voter guides backing candidates who want to buy the land.

Bullsugar will prevail, he predicted, because "people, not just in Martin County but across the state, are finally understanding that the solution to our long-term water problem isn't about lacking science. That is settled. It's about having the political will to finally do what is right."

Well, I'll bet we could find a few scientists who would disagree that the science is "settled." Nonetheless, Siegel is correct: This is indeed about political will, and who will impose it upon whom.

Bullsugar frames the issue in terms of right or wrong, but whether buying land south of Lake O is "morally" correct or not, it's undoubtedly what many people want. It's what they believe will help alleviate the algae crisis.

In other words, it's about democracy.

"The people" want to buy the land and send the water south. Will the politicians listen to "the people"?

Republican state Sen. Joe Negron listened, pitching a plan to buy land. Crystal Lucas, the Democrat who will take on Republican state Rep. Gayle Harrell this fall, has made buying land a cornerstone of her candidacy.

The algae crisis — and the question of whether candidates support a land buy — was a key issue all along the Treasure Coast this primary season. Candidates either needed to be on the bus, or disguise the fact they weren't, lest they feel the electoral wrath of "the people."

"The people," it should go without saying, don't always represent all the people, and might not even represent a majority. But "the people" do tend to speak with one voice — and politicians, rightly, begin to quake when that voice gets loud.

The guacamole-thick algae, the stench, the beach closings this year — given the severity of the crisis, and the lack of quick solutions, the discourse was bound to turn vitriolic. You can have all sorts of grand, long-term plans in place, but when the acrid smell of toxic algae is choking you, there's not going to be a calm, civil discussion.

The problem is once you get to that point, consensus and compromise become more difficult, if not impossible. Political will becomes the entire point; "the people" want a specific thing. Their political foes say "the people" are wrong and are being unreasonable; that the thing they want isn't available, won't solve their problem or could even hurt far more than it helps.

Isn't this exactly where we're at? This is straight-up populism. If you know your history, this is the "free silver" movement redux. Were William Jennings Bryan around, he would be talking about crucifixion upon a cross of algae.

But Jennings and the Populist Party didn't prevail. Few populist movements do, though sometimes they do move the needle, at least a bit.

And that's why, as a pretty seasoned political observer who happens to be a new resident, our Treasure Coast water crisis so fascinates me.

These are my waters now, too.

And after decades of scribes like me penning the same anguished paeans to our fouled ecosystem — would that needle, here, finally budge.

About Gil Smart

Gil Smart is a columnist for Treasure Coast Newspapers and a member of the Editorial Board. His columns reflect his opinion. Readers may reach him at gil.smart@tcpalm.com, by phone at 772-223-4741 or via Twitter at @TCPalmGilSmart.